Got X-ray vision? / Goodby, Silverstein pours out fresh new campaign for Milk Board that gets right down to the marrow of things

George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, February 9, 2003

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Goodby Silverstein is sponsoring a contest encouraging the public to send X-rays to be used in Milk Board ads.

Goodby Silverstein is sponsoring a contest encouraging the public to send X-rays to be used in Milk Board ads.

Got X-ray vision? / Goodby, Silverstein pours out fresh new campaign for Milk Board that gets right down to the marrow of things

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The meandering score to "The English Patient," a brooding story of doomed love, seems an unlikely accompaniment to a "Got Milk?" commercial, which always brings a hearty chuckle at the expense of the milk-deprived.

But then, everything else about this 30-second television ad, launched on Wednesday, is seemingly incongruous for a "Got Milk?" ad. It's simply a montage of X-rays -- a hand, a tibia, a pelvic bone and more.

The ad represents a change in tone for the 10-year-old campaign, just as competition intensifies with other supposedly healthful beverages and calcium- fortified products.

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The idea behind the serious and perhaps for some people off-putting ad, with the message "Strength Comes From Within," is to encourage adult consumers to think of milk as a source of beneficial calcium, to help prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.

The ad ends, of course, with the tag line: "Got Milk?"

The message comes from the California Milk Processing Board and its advertising agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco. It's a fine example not only of the requirement to refreshen ad campaigns but of the pressure of competition.

Calcium is now in a number of products, presenting competition for milk that didn't exist 10 years ago. Calcium-fortified orange juice, in particular, is among the fastest-growing orange juice products, according to the Florida Department of Citrus.

The California milk board, a group of middlemen who move milk from dairy farms to markets, wanted to maintain and increase market share in the beverage category by sending the message that "you have to have milk if you want strong bones," said Jeff Manning, executive director of the group, which is based in Berkeley.

Manning said that in years prior to 1993, when the first "Got Milk?" advertising appeared, milk sales in California declined an average of 2.5 percent. But since the campaign began, sales have been flat with a few small increases, meaning the ads probably helped stop the bleeding.

In the state in 2002, 746 million gallons of milk were sold, a 1.6 percent increase over 2001. But two economic forces promoted the milk board to accelerate marketing: The competition for milk has increased sharply, with calcium now found in bread, cereal, granola bars and other products, and there has been a spike in beverages considered to have health benefits.

In addition, national milk boards have no television advertising for white milk. "That left a gap on the television front," said Manning, "and we felt like we needed to explore the area of strength, good bones -- what's good for you."

The new ad doesn't make the claim that milk builds strong bones, although that is implied. A claim, said Manning, would require a disclaimer -- for example, that not everyone can drink milk and that milk is only one of many sources of calcium.

Fortunately for the milk board, calcium is a lifelong requirement. "For children, it is absolutely essential that, while growing, they get a lot of calcium, and milk is the most readily available calcium product and is the one that does not contain a lot of sugar," said Dr. Eugene Carragee, professor of orthopedic surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Hospital Spine Center.

The effects of a calcium-deficient diet on children may not become apparent until they reach 60, but they can be catastrophic, said Carragee, who added that the adult daily calcium requirement is 1.5 grams -- and more for pregnant or nursing women.

"As a public message, this would certainly be a good thing for most people, if you can tolerate milk," Carragee said of the ad.

Production costs for the ad were minimal, because Goodby, Silverstein employees contributed their personal X-rays. At the cost of $3 million, however, the spot will be seen in the state's major media markets for several weeks and is the first in a series of health-oriented ads from the milk board.

Members of the sponsoring milk board were said to squirm upon seeing the X- ray ad, but they're long accustomed to the unusual. The ad had a "marked effect on people" in focus groups, said Jeff Goodby, co-founder of Goodby, Silverstein. "They were taken aback by it," he said, but it got them to thinking whether they need to drink more milk.

Goodby said his workers on the milk board account asked themselves whether the ad campaign had bigger issues than that of being of deprived of milk.

The answer, he said, came in a reflection of what mothers have long said -- "Drink your milk every day," and, by extension, "There's the ability to cope with life and look good and feel good every day."

Said Manning, "If that is all we need to do, to get people asking whether they should drink more milk, then we're successful."

Manning, however, did not leave it there. With the introduction of the "X- ray Spot" comes a contest called, appropriately, "Got Bones?" Californians 18 and older are invited to send original X-rays of any part of their bodies, some 10 of which will be used in future ads in the campaign.

X-rays can be mailed from Wednesday through March 17, and those selected, in the week of April 28, will be listed on www.gotmilk.com. The milk board says it will select X-rays "based on artistic/creative considerations only."

Traditionalists will be comforted to know that another funny "Got Milk?" spot also began airing last week. "Birthday" is the story of a boy who has the power to foresee and avert tragedy: He helps his father avoid hitting a dog crossing in front of his car and being struck by a falling tree en route to a birthday party. However, at the party, the boy's warning, "Don't eat the cake, " is ignored. When the kids start eating the cake, a young woman looks in horror as she discovers she is out of milk.

"If you are trying to attract new users or increase use by current users who might be attracted to calcium-fortified products, then it's important to develop a new message," said Stewart. Indeed, he said, having two separate milk messages helps reach three different markets -- the current users, those who consume milk but not as much as they might and people who do not consume milk.

"This is why companies will send multiple messages, reaching different people in the marketplace," said Stewart.

When we last visited the "Got Milk?" campaign in November, the milk board had approached Mayor Sharleta Callaway of Biggs (Butte County) to inquire whether the town would change its name to Got Milk?, Calif., in exchange for some unspecified largesse.

The good people of Biggs were in a tizzy.

Callaway had not committed to anything, but she was willing to have a conversation with the milk people about what they might offer the town. That's where the matter spun out of control: News stories were carried around the world, there was talk of a recall campaign, and there was much consternation at a gathering of many of the 1,793 residents of Biggs at the high school on Nov. 4.

After some steam was let off, the city council rejected the idea, and Callaway said she hoped that was the end of it. But it wasn't.

She and her husband flew to Maui for a vacation and for a break from the brouhaha, and there were reporters waiting there for her at the airport. Even now, when she is spotted at restaurants, people send glasses of milk to her via waiters. "It's happened in Yuba City, Chico and Gridley, " she said. "I just laugh."

"You've got to be kidding. I support milk. Women under 40 are getting osteoporosis. I support dairy farmers. But with the contest, people will be jeopardizing their privacy. I got a good taste of that."